January 23, 2018

Adapting to being a New Species – Homo Internetus

When are Ancestors were apes they could not speak but physically groomed each other in a social group of about 30 family and friends. A massive evolutionary change took place when are ancestors, the first Humans, started to speak. They groomed each other with small talk and story telling, in larger groups of maybe 100 friends and family, later enhanced by the Telephone.

Another great evolutionary change has occurred in the last 20 years or so – cyberspace and the net. This means that we can now groom each other in groups of 500 or more, but instead of picking salt out of our fellow beings and eating it, and instead of telling stories we interact at a physical distance word wide, grooming with Likes and Emoticons, forming clan bubbles of 1000s even millions of beings that we believe are like us, and believing the cultural norms of these new clans.

Soon we may perhaps turn into cyborgs, and our cell phones and devices are becoming part of us as individuals, so that are identities have become increasingly determined and validated by them. The future has suddenly become more uncertain than ever before. We either evolve and use our new identities to adapt or we become extinct. We are on the brink of becoming perhaps many different species of cyborgs over the next who knows how many years.

This is exciting if we use the net and don’t let it use us but scary if we allow the net to rule over us and submit to its growing power and dominance. These are the two main futures ahead of use, perhaps the two new species: Homo Superior and Homo Inferior – if we have a choice the time to choose is now….